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Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and 

seventy-nine, 

By John Springer, ^ 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



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^iRoce+co+cRG^AmeRi^an+GDicion^ 




APPILY, it is not needful in presenting this 
booklet and asking for it public appreciation 
and patronage, that it should be preceded by 
an apologetic note. The author has stated 
in his Preliminary Observations the reasons 
which led him to compile this List of the 
Reproductions of the Productions of 
the Press of William Caxton, a task for 
which he is eminently qualified, having been for many years a 
close student of the history of Caxton, and the lives and labors 
of the early English printers. The descriptions of the Repro- 
ductions of the works from Caxton's press may be unhesita- 
tingly accepted as accurate and trustworthy. All of them are 
made from volumes in the author's possession. 

So far distant is the United States from the land of Caxton, 
and the scene of his labors, that it is not to be expected that 
the same active interest should be felt in his history that is 
now present, and stronger than ever, in England. Yet we are 
by no means destitute of an interest in Caxton and things 
Caxtonian. As early as 1872 there was published in an Eastern 
typographical magazine* an entertaining historical sketch of 



*Mr. Theo. L. DeVinne, in The Printers 1 Circular (Philadelphia) Vol. vti., 
pp. 241, 281, 321, 353 (September, October, November, December, 1872). 



& 



viii ^n0CG*T0+TRG+^mGHI^An*GDICI0n^ 

England's prototypographer, the first —I think— written by an 
American in which Caxton was considered as a printer. The 
hold which Caxton has taken upon the American literary 
world daily grows stronger ; and it was in graceful recognition 
of this responsive feeling that Mr. JBeedham committed to the 
press of a foreign land that which would have been gladly 
undertaken at home as a mercantile venture, resigning all 
hope of pecuniary profit, and presenting his work to the reader 
without the prestige which a London imprint gives. It is a 
gracious act, and I hope that it may be recognized as such. 

This pamphlet treats only of the Reproductions of the books 
printed at the press of the First English Printer. It may not 
be amiss to refer to one of the influences which have led to a 
reproduction, in luxurious and expensive imitation, of old-time 
crudeness and simplicity. William Caxton does not enlist our 
sympathies in the guise of a great author. His literary efforts 
were limited to translations from the French and Latin, and 
to the prologues and epilogues to his books. It is not because 
of rare typographical beauty that these books have been sought 
out and imitated at great cost ; for to the untrained eye they 
present an unreadable appearance. Nor is it because of their 
intrinsic worth; it may well be doubted whether the most 
ardent Caxton lovers have ever read his printed pages as a 
literary treat. But he was The First English Printer — 
the first man of historical flesh and blood who introduced into 
England that lever that has done more than Archimedes dared 
offer to do —that moves mind and matter, body, soul, and 
spirit. And who among living men shall estimate how much 
has been added to the value of these books by the goodness 
and nobleness of the Printer's life ? the productions of whose 
press are an everlasting memorial to truth and virtue. The 
life of William Caxton was the life of a good man. There is 
not one recorded or tradition-told deed therein contained that 
noble manhood or pure womanhood need blush to recount. 
While wickedness and depravity are excused because of "the 
times in which men lived," let it be accounted for praise to 



^noce+TO+Ti)G+AmGKi<£sn+GDicion^ ix 

Caxton that he was better than his day and generation ; —that 
in an age when civil dissensions had shaken public and private 
virtue to the foundations, and when religion, halted between a 
retrogression to fetichism and an advance to moral living, we 
find him putting this sentiment into the mouth of one of the 
characters in a fable written by himself: "If I do my true 
' diligence in the cure of my parishioners in preaching and 
'teaching, and do the part belonging to my cure, I shall have 
'heaven therefor. And if their souls be lost, or one of them, 
' by my default, I shall be punished therefor, and hereof I am 
' sure." Mr. William Blades, Caxton's last and best biographer, 
well says of him :* " We can claim for him a character which 
' attracted the love and respect of his associates — a character 
' on which history has chronicled no stain — a character which, 
'although surrounded through a long period of civil war by 
' the worst forms of cruelty, hypocrisy, and injustice in Church 
' and State, retained to the last its innate simplicity and truth - 
' fulness." 

The author has incidentally referred to the inability of the 
many to procure copies of the issues of Caxton's press, for two 
reasons : their scarcity, and the consequent high price set upon 
them, down to the veriest fragments, until collectors weigh 
down the printed pages with gold, and even with bank-notes. 
According to Mr. Blades, only five hundred and forty-two 
identified books and fragments, counting the smallest scraps, 
remain from the productions of the Westminster Press. And 
of this small number, nearly two hundred and fifty are held in 
five English libraries. A moment's reflection shows the high 
value in such cases of accurate reproductions. The greater 
part of these reproductions have been issued in limited num- 
bers, and they likewise are imitations of the originals in that 
they are constantly appreciating in price. 

How came I to print this booklet ? It was on this wise : In 



* Biography and Typography of William Caxton (London, 1877), p. 93. 



x -Ml0CG+T04-TI)G^mGHI^An*GDICI0n^ 

the Spring of 1878 there were distributed seventy-two copies 

of a privately printed Catalogue, with notes and appendices, 

of the books relating to historical and practical typography, 

and its allied subjects, then contained in my few "bringings- 

together." Mr. C. W. H. Wyman, of London, kindly furnished 

me with a short list of addresses to which copies might be 

acceptably sent. Among them was the name of "Mr. B. H. 

Beedham, Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire," a gentleman wholly 

unknown to me. In due time there came to hand from this 

recipient of the printed trifle a courteous and friendly letter 

of acknowledgment, which made it incumbent on me to reply, 

and after some further correspondence, I was gladly surprised 

by the receipt of the following note : 

Kimbolton, England, 27th August, 1878. 
Dear Sir : 

You are interested in Caxton. The productions of his press are, 

practically, unattainable . But there have appeared several reproductions 
in absolute fac-simile, and others in imitation, of the hooks issued from his 
press. All of these I possess,— every one. Now, if you like to print, I will 
write and furnish to you notices of these reproductions. The extent would 
probably be about the same as your " Essay "* on Caxton. What say you ? 



Very truly yours, 

B. Beedham. 
John Springer, Esq. 

Few preliminaries called for settlement, and it was arranged 
that I should bring out the work in the United States, and that 
it should not be printed in England, I furnishing Mr. Beedham 
with such number of copies as he might desire, identical with 
the American edition, save in this Introduction. By my ad- 
vice, however, he was induced to enlarge considerably upon 
his original design, and the text finally reached me almost as 
it appears in the following pages, the first installment coming 
to hand on the second day of June. 

I do not think I have need to be ashamed of, nor to apologize 
for the typographical execution of this work. It has been a 
labor of love, and of my own hands. Still it is not just what I 



* Privately printed and distributed in February, 1877 (fifty-five copies 
only), 8vo, pp. 11,— equivalent to about four pages of this pamphlet. 



^ncCG+TO+TBG+AmGRIGM+GDICIOn* xi 

could wish. The facilities of an interior town printing-office, 
far removed from the next-door advantages of a large city, are 
not such as afford the means for the execution of the finer 
class of book-printing, —a class of printing that is exampled 
to perfection in the beautiful works which Messrs. Blades and 
DeYinne, distinguished as printers no less than as authors, 
have given to the public. As I have said, I do not reproach 
myself with the result. I have endeavored, in my own best 
way, to present the author's words in a dress that he need not 
be unwilling to show to others, and which shall be no discredit 
to my honorable handicraft. I wish that I might add to it the 
proud motto of an eminent London printer — Opus Opificem 
probat. I have done as much as was possible without an outlay 
beyond my pecuniary abilities. I hope that the deep interest 
which attaches to the subject, and the known ability of the 
author for treating it, may cause any merely mechanical short- 
comings to be overlooked. 

Separated from its author by a distance which requires four 
weeks, under the most favorable circumstances, for its trav- 
ersing, his work is necessarily fixed upon the page without his 
revision. It is not an absolute transcript of the manuscript. 
The few changes which have been made seemed, in the eyes of 
its "step-father," imperatively called for. I hope the critical 
reader may not be able to discern them, 

As it is, I am largely indebted to others for the assistance 
which has made it possible for me to compass this work. To 
Hon. John P. Irish, proprietor of The Iowa City Press, for the 
most indispensable —facilities for typographical execution, 
and for much and helpful labor in revision. To Messrs. John 
J. Hamilton, of Bloomfield, Iowa, and John F. Marthens, of 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and, especially, to Mr. Jonathan S. 
Green, of New York, who to multiplied kindnesses adds that 
of publishing this pamphlet. 

The bookling is not printed, nor published, as a mercantile 
speculation, nor with a desire to climb upon the ladder which 
its author has erected. If it shall give me back; what it has 



Xll 



^DocG+To*ci)S+AmGHi^n*GDicion*^ 



cost; bring me into closer union with those whose sympathy 
and good-fellowship I covet ; and lead to a yet better appre- 
ciation of that great man among good and true Englishmen— 
"William Caxton— then the printer's object will have been 
accomplished. 

John Springer. 
Iowa City, Iowa, August 15th, 1879. 





^pReLiminARY*OB$6KVAcion$^ 




T was in the year 1812, that a single 
volume printed by Caxton produced 
at public auction a sum exceeding one 
thousand pounds. This circumstance 
must have excited a desire to know 
something about the man, one of the 
productions of whose printing-press 
had a value equal to that of a moderate 
sized farm. The authority to be consulted was the 
work by Lewis of Margate called "The Life of 
Mayster Wyllyam Caxton of the Weald of Kent." 
It was printed in 1737, to the extent of one hundred 
and fifty copies only, with a portrait which was 
fictitious, and at the time we are speaking of, the 
volume would have cost about three times as much 
as the exhaustive biography which Mr. Blades com- 
piled from his larger work and gave to the world 
in 1877. An ordinary book-lover of 1812, seized 
with an insatiable desire to look upon a veritable 
Caxton, would probably have sought the privilege, as a favour, 
at the hands of some private possessor. The British Museum 
would have been the last place that any reasonable man would 
have thought of going to. Though an institution supported by 
the nation, it was not then, nor for long afterwards, a national 
institution in any sense worthy of the name. It existed as a 
quiet and dignified retreat for a few literary men, its officials, 



i3 



2 ^CRG^AXcon+RePHODii^cion^ 

who could labour there undisturbed. The public were treated 
as the natural enemies of those inside. The regulations were 
framed upon the supposition that every one seeking admission 
had some improper object in view. When I, then very young, 
first made application to get into the Beading Boom, there was 
so much to be done that, anxious as I was to gain my end, I 
gave up the whole thing in disgust. How completely is all this 
changed! Now, the facilities in all respects, and for all pur- 
poses, are so great, that I do not quite know how they could 
be greater. I never hear a suggestion of alteration without an 
unquiet feeling lest something that is good should be sup- 
planted by something which is less good. Now, the readiest 
way to see a real Caxton is to walk into the Museum and to 
look at those displayed in its show-cases. No asking, no 
trouble, no anything. 

The interest excited by the sale of the copy of " The Becuyell 
of the Histories of Troy," nearly seventy years ago, to which I 
have referred, however great it may have been, would be slight 
and partial compared with that which the sale of a famous 
Caxton would now create. Of the innumerable changes which 
have been brought about in the interval which separates us 
from 1812, not the least wonderful, assuredly, is the immensely 
increased activity of the printing-press. As an offshoot from 
this activity may be mentioned the demand for reprints, in 
choice old-fashioned type, of rare and valuable books. In 1812, 
a fac-simile or an imitation of Caxton's type could only be seen 
in some costly work unknown beyond the circle of the avowed 
book-lover. Now, we are so Caxtonian in our tastes that 
tradesmen's circulars are issued by the thousand in type which 
is an excellent imitation of that used by our first printer. This 
indicates very plainly that he is much better known and that 
information respecting him is much more readily accessible 
than in times past. And I venture to assert that the popular 
acquaintance with Caxton, the acquaintance of the people of 
England with England's First Printer, and their appreciation 
of him, date precisely from the year 1844. In that year Charles 
Knight gave to the world his " William Caxton, the First Eng- 
lish Printer; a Biography." It was circulated not by hundreds 
but by thousands. It was the first of a series, literally and 
truly, for All Beaders, and which till then was unequalled, 



*pReLiminw+OB$eRYAcion$* 3 

and has never since been surpassed in the two cardinal points, 
for such an undertaking, of being small in price and large in 
value. This is not the place to enter into a history of Knight's 
Weekly Volume, as the Series was called, and I will therefore 
only say that the matters on which 1 differ, and differ most 
widely, from Charles Knight, are neither few nor unimportant, 
yet do I count him worthy of all honour in his sincere desire 
to benefit "the people," using the formula which he would have 
adopted. When Charles Knight's little volume appeared, the 
Caxton who to persons of ordinary intelligence and informa- 
tion, to the average, every-day Englishman, in fact, had hitherto 
been a heap of dry bones, became clothed with flesh, a living 
and moving being. For the sum of one shilling, there was 
then accessible the most authentic, the fullest, the best account 
anywhere to be found of England's First Printer. It was a 
graceful act of Messrs. Clowes, as their offering to the Caxton 
Celebration, to reprint this work in the slightly modified form 
which it assumed after its appearance in the Weekly Volume 
Series. It was an appropriate and well-timed remembrance of 
one who had passed away, who in his day had taken a warm 
interest in Caxton and in printing. Only I regret that Messrs. 
Clowes should have done their part to perpetuate a fiction by 
giving as the portrait of Caxton that which is really the portrait 
of the Italian Burchiello. Charles Knight was the very man, in 
his day and for the requirements of his time, to write about 
Caxton. His book may not satisfy the critical reader; probably 
he did not make this his object; his work was intended for a 
popular audience, and for such an audience, no work could be 
better adapted. The reader will remember that we are in 1844. 
In 1844, the public was not ready for those elaborate and 
minute details about Caxton and the productions of his press 
which have since been laid before it. The requirement of that 
time was essentially a popular book, addressed to a wide circle 
of readers, calculated to interest in itself, and calculated also 
to stimulate a desire for further information. If this were 
Charles Knight's object, he was entirely successful. In the 
same year in which the first Weekly Volume appeared, a dis- 
tinguished French writer, in a lengthy article in one of the 
leading literary reviews of Paris, invited attention to the life 
and works of the First English Printer. I speak of the article 



4 *Ci>e+<£Axcon+RGPKODuecion$+- 

of M. Le Roux de Lincy in The Revue Britannique, a few copies 
of which were printed in a separate form-, in the sense of show- 
ing an extending interest in Caxton, rather than in that of an 
addition to our knowledge of him. For my own part, if it be 
permitted to me to speak of myself, I may say that it was the 
perusal of the first Weekly Volume in my youthful days which 
awakened in me the great and lively interest I have never 
since ceased to take in Caxton and his productions. 

Not to repeat what will be found in the Catalogue which 
follows these Observations, I pass on to a modest prospectus 
which lies before me. It is dated September, 1858, and it 
announces as being in preparation, in one volume, a Treatise 
on the Typographical Works of William Caxton, by William 
Blades. Its proposed contents were, in brief : a few particu- 
lars (some new) in the life of William Caxton; an essay on 
Caxton's types and typography; an exact collation of every 
work at present known to have issued from Caxton's press; 
some account of the Caxtons contained in the chief public 
and private libraries of the last two centuries, and an accurate 
transcript of all Caxton's prologues and epilogues. There is 
also lying before me another prospectus of the same work, 
dated July, 1860, the most noteworthy variation from the earlier 
one being under the first head, where we are now promised, 
"some new and important particulars in the life of William 
Caxton." Yet again there is lying before me, with the date of 
1861, a pamphlet of a dozen pages, whose object it is to an- 
nounce the intended publication, on the 1st May, of that year, 
in two volumes demy quarto, of "The Life and Typography of 
William Caxton, England's Prototypographer, compiled from 
original sources by William Blades," and to furnish, in detail, 
a statement of the intended contents of each volume. In fact, 
the first volume did appear in the month of May, 1861, but it 
was not until March, 1863, that the second was ready. An 
author's performances do not always come up to his promise, 
but in this instance certainly the performance goes beyond 
the promise. Seldom have the critics been so unanimous in 
their favourable judgment of any work, as they were of these 
two volumes of Mr. Blades. There is, probably, scarcely any 
one who is better able than myself to add his personal testi- 
mony to that which the work itself affords of the labour and 



I 



*Pi?GLiminAKY*()B$Gi?YAnon$+> 5 

pains bestowed upon it. Writing to me some years after the 
completion of the work, Mr. Blades says, "only this morning 

' I took down a thick quarto volume consisting 

'entirely of communications from you concerning Caxton and 
'his typography. They vividly recalled the pleasure with 
'which, many years ago, I used to rind upon my arrival here, a 
'two or three sheet letter full of antiquarian research, very 
'useful to me in the work I was then upon." In the course of 
the correspondence referred to, which on my part I recall with 
no less pleasure, it soon became apparent that difficulty and 
trouble were to Mr. Blades unknown quantities ; that he was 
determined to find out everything that could be found out, and 
in that view to neglect nothing, however apparently slight, 
that was brought under his notice. If to this we add the pos- 
session of technical knowledge so clear as to make technical 
details plain to those who have no such knowledge, and the 
heartiest love for his subject, we shall not wonder that he has 
produced a work of the highest order, and a model of its kind. 

This work indicates a new era in matters Caxtonian. The 
public was prepared for, and has declared its appreciation of 
details the most elaborate, the most minute, respecting Caxton 
and the works which issued from his press. I do not know 
what more could have been said either about him, or about 
them, yet one is never tired, one never wearies, never thinks 
that anything has been pushed too far. Certainly no other 
printer of any country, or of any age, can boast of so worthy a 
memorial. The ground had been prepared, and the work was 
welcomed by a much wider circle than, twenty years previ- 
ously would have hailed its publication. 

To complete this part of my story, I may here note that in 
1877 Mr. Blades issued an octavo volume called " The Biogra- 
phy and Typography of William Caxton," which, as I suggested 
to him, may be considered as a concio ad populum, or intended 
for those generally interested, while the earlier and more ex- 
tensive work is a concio ad clerum, or designed for those who 
take a more special interest in the subject. 

In the course of 1876 was matured the scheme which, under 
the name of the Caxton Celebration, was brought to so success- 
ful an issue in the summer of the following year. Its object 
was two-fold ; on the one hand, a national homage to the First 



6 ^Cl)G*(fAXC0n4.RGPH0DU(?CI0n^ 

English Printer, and on the other, the provision of some char- 
itable help to followers of Caxton's art who might stand in 
need of such assistance. Upon grounds into which it is unnec- 
essary here to enter, it was the popular belief that the art of 
printing was introduced into England by Caxton in 1474, and 
hence it was proposed to hold the Celebration in 18*74. A letter 
from Mr. Blades, received by the promoters April 23, 1874, from 
which the following extract is printed in the Prospectus of 
the Caxton Celebration, seems satisfactorily to dispose of that 
date: 

"At the end of Caxton's 'Chess-book' is the date of transla- 
tion, 'Finished the last day of March . . . 1474.' According 
'to modern reckoning this was really 1475, because, as I have 
' shown in my ' Life of Caxton ' ii., p. 9, the new year in the 
'Low Countries did not begin then until Easter-day. Now 
' Easter-day in 1474 fell upon April 10, and therefore Caxton did 
'not finish his translation in Bruges till March 31, 1475. As 
'the book was printed after that in Bruges, and before Caxton 
' came to England with the new art, we must, I think, arrive 
' at this conclusion : Caxton probably came to England in 1476, 
'but the first indisputable date we have to stand on is the 
' printing of ' The Dictes ' in 1477." 

Adopting, therefore, 1477 as the date of the Introduction of 
printing into England, it was decided that the celebration to 
commemorate that event should be held in the month of June, 
1877. The possessors of Caxtons and of the works of other 
early printers showered their treasures upon the Celebration 
Committee with a liberality which must have surpassed all 
their anticipations. A whole host of accessories connected 
with printing added considerably to the interest of the Cele- 
bration. It was at first intended that the collection should 
remain open for a very brief period only, from Monday, June 
11 to Saturday, June 23, but in the result it was opened on 
Saturday, June 30, and closed on Saturday, September 1. The 
gross number of visitors amounted to 24,684, and the gross 
receipts for admission were £981 .6.2. In every sense, literary, 
artistic, mechanical, and last, but not least, financial, the Cele- 
bration was a great success. Its pecuniary result was the 
handing over to the Printers' Pension Corporation of the net 
sum of .£1116.3.2. 



-*PRGLiminARY*OB$GRYACIOn$*- 7 

The following list of some of the memorials of the Celebra- 
tion may not be without interest to the reader. Others occur 
further on : 

Caxton Celebration, 1877. Catalogue of the Loan 
Collection of Antiquities .... connected with 
the Art of Printing. Preliminary Issue. London, n. d.: 
fcap. Svo, pp. xix, 404. Price, one shilling. 

, : The same. Edited by George 

Bullen, Esqr., F. S. A., Keeper of the Printed Books, British 
Museum. London, n. d.: fcap. Svo, pp. xix, 456. Price, one 
shilling. 

This edition contains Mr. Stevens's Remarks on Printed 
Bibles, which he has since republished in a separate volume. 
Before the close of the Celebration, there was an issue precisely 
similar, so far as I can discover, save that it bears upon the 
cover, though not upon the title-page, the words, "Revised 
Edition," and that an error iu numbering the pages, which 
occurred in the former edition after p. 176, is corrected, and the 
last page is 472 instead of 456. The price was raised to half-a- 
crown. A Large Paper edition of one hundred and fifty- 
seven copies, on superfine, toned hand-made paper, was issued 
to subscribers at twelve shillings and sixpence per copy. Ten 
copies on Largest Paper were taken at five guineas each. 
A small paper copy now sells for five shillings. 

A Guide to the Objects of Chief Interest in the Loan 
Collection of the Caxton Celebration. London, 1877 : 
fcap. Svo, pp. 32. 

By Mr. William Blades, the Caxton authority, and not less 
useful as a memorial of the Celebration, than it was valuable 
as a companion to its riches whilst it was in progress. 

William Caxton, the First English Printer. A Biogra- 
phy, by Charles Knight. New edition. London, 1877: fcap. 
Svo, wood-cuts, pp. 158. 

In this new edition are certain alterations and omissions as 
compared with the original edition issued in 1844. "Printed 
and presented to the Caxton Celebration by William Clowes 



8 *Ci5e+<£Axcon*RGPHODUGcion$*- 

and Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross." So says the 
cover, and we should have been glad to have seen these words 
repeated upon the title-page. 

Who was Caxton ? William Caxton, Merchant, Ambassador, 
Historian, Author, Translator, and Printer. A Monograph. 
London, 1877 : /cap. 8vo, wood-cuts, pp. 47. 
By Mr. R. H. Blades, but published without his name. Al- 
though, for old acquaintance sake, I am partial, personally, to 
Mr. Knight's little volume, I am bound to say that the present 
monograph keeps more closely to the point, and that I know 
no other work published at one shilling in which so complete 
and authentic an account of Caxton can be found. 

^nU (&©B sattie 3Let Iggljte be, aufc anone 

l»aj)te to as. 
Slips with these words, Caxton's own translation of Gen. i, 3, 
were printed in the Exhibition on paper made in the Exhibi- 
tion, and having Caxton's device as a watermark. " The crowd 
' round the next, where Caxton himself is working at a small 
4 wooden press about two hundred years old, attracts our atten- 
tion. The old pressman, with his knee-breeches, hoary locks, 
' and polite mien, seems made for the press he works at, and it 
'for him. He was apprenticed in London, and is one of the 
'few now left who has had practical acquaintance with the 
' mode in which ball-stocks were stuffed and pelts nailed on. 
' The press is probably in its chief features very like that used 
'by Caxton, and is without the improvements invented by 
'Blaeuw about 1650." — Guide to Caxton Celebration, p. 31. 

The New Biblia Pauperum. London, 1877 : small folio, wood- 
cuts. 

Designed to commemorate alike the Caxton Celebration and 
the Wiclif Quincentenary. The original I have not yet seen, 
but the prospectus of the work is now before me. About the 
year 1832, the late Mr. Sams, of Darlington, discovered at 
Nuremberg a unique set of thirty-eight wood blocks engraved 
in 1470, and which then appeared never to have been used in 
any printed book. These blocks, which illustrate altogether 
seventy-eight Scriptural subjects, being in the hands of Messrs. 



^PKGLiminARY+OB$GflYACIOn$* 9 

Unwin, the eminent printers of London, they issued them in a 
volume together with a page of Wiclif 's New Testament text 
bearing upon the subjects treated of. The type is Caxtonian, 
and the paper hand-made, of material and colour to imitate 
that used in the fifteenth century. Price to subscribers, one 
guinea, and the whole edition limited to about two hundred 
and fifty copies. These details I derive from the prospectus. 
I did not subscribe to the work, my idea of the value of Mr. 
Sams's discovery, based upon the specimen of the wood-cuts, 
not being in accordance with that of Messrs. Unwin. Every 
copy was disposed of, and the Celebration fund derived a bene- 
fit of £27 . 19 . 10 from the work. 

Caxton Celebration. Balance Sheet and Keport of Execu- 
tive Committee, fcap. 8vo, pp. 11. 

Dated November 17, 1877. " One difficulty the Executive are 
'compelled to mention and deplore, and that is the delay in 
' the production of the corrected Catalogue. This was in great 
'measure owing to the fact of the continual growth of the 
'scheme, and the almost unceasing additions which were con- 
' stantly being made to the Exhibition. When the Catalogue 
'appeared, as finally corrected, it fully justified the time and 
'labour which had been gratuitously bestowed upon it; and it 
' will remain a fitting memorial of the Exhibition, and a trust- 
' worthy epitome of information upon the subjects of which it 
'treats." 

'. Supplemental Balance Sheet and 

Report of Executive Committee, fcap. 8vo, pp. 4. 

Dated July 30, 1878. " In presenting the final Balance Sheet 

'to the General Committee, little remains to be said, beyond 

' conveying an expression of gratification that the anticipations 

' contained in the Report laid before the Committee in Novem- 

' ber last have been more than realized. In that 

' Report it was stated ' that a sum not far short of £1000 will be 
'handed over to the Printers' Pension Corporation for chari- 
' table purposes ' ; the amount so handed over (including £210. 
'17s. 5d. especially appropriated to the establishment of the 
'Stephenson Pension) is £1116. 3s. 2d." 



<£ 



10 <+CBc+(£Axcon+RepKODu<£cion$*- 

It is somewhat singular that no undoubted autograph of 
Caxton has yet been discovered. In the Pepysian Library, at 
Magdalen College, Cambridge, is an English manuscript of 
the fifteenth century, consisting of a portion of Ovid's Meta- 
morphoses, which is supposed to be in Caxton's handwriting, 
and the last page of which has been photographed for the 
College. One photographic copy was exhibited at the Caxton 
Celebration (No. 5 in the Catalogue), and by the courtesy of 
the Master and the kindness of the Society, another is in my 
possession. There is such a conventional character about the 
writing that the question of autograph or otherwise cannot 
well be determined upon the intrinsic evidence. The colophon 
bears the date of April 22, 1480, and there seems little doubt 
that the manuscript was prepared for the press, and perhaps 
printed, but no copy, or fragment even, has yet been discovered 
in print. In connexion with this point it may be mentioned 
that Caxton's instructor, Colard Mansion, of Bruges, issued a 
French translation of the Metamorphoses, of which a mag- 
nificent copy, printed in May, 1484, is to be seen in the Public 
Library at Bruges. Not long since, in looking through a 
catalogue sent to me by Mr. Hayes, a bookseller of Manchester, 
I noticed a copy of a Latin Bible printed at Nuremberg in 1477, 
by Coburger, for sale at £35. Appended is a note stating that 
"This copy appears to have belonged to Caxton, England's 
' First Printer, as there is the following inscription on the verso 
1 of the last leaf but two, and it has every appearance of being 
'•genuine: — 'STij^s #e first Setter of t|)e cvatt flab mg polgcfjromcon 
'to»tf) certattt torgtms of 3&anulf Jfyigfim to ve 5^ol# jFatrgr <£ooft*£ a 
' if&agnce 1482, OTilliam barton,'" The italics, it is only fair 
to say, are those of the compiler of the catalogue, and indicate 
an opinion on his part, in which I, not having seen the original, 
and judging only from the inscription as printed, was unable 
to concur. However, I communicated with Mr. Blades at once, 
who thought he recognized the book in the catalogue as one 
which had been offered to the Committee of the Caxton Cele- 
bration, but which they had not accepted. 

The mark or device of Caxton is well known to those who 
have paid attention to this branch of bibliography. Besides 
being reproduced in works relating to our First Printer, it is 



*PRGLiminARY+OB$GRYACIOn$* 11 

given, upon a reduced scale, in the fifth edition of Brunet's 
"Manuel du Libraire" (vol. i, col. 1561), and through the kind- 
ness of Mr. Blades it appears, also reduced, upon the title-page 
of this tractate. So far as is known, it was first used by Caxton 
in a Missal according to the Use of Sarum, which, not having 
himself the necessary liturgical type, he employed a printer at 
Paris to execute for him. This was in 1487, and the book so 
printed, of which only a single copy is known, is the editio 
princeps of the Sarum Missal. The initials WSS. <&. are plain 
enough, and need no interpretation, but the central portion has 
been regarded as not quite so clear. Hitherto, it has usually 
been considered to represent the Arabic figures 4 and 7, and 
thus to point to the date 1474. For my own part, having long 
ago been interested in monumental brasses, and as part of that 
subject in what are called merchants' marks, I have been un- 
able to follow those who came to such a conclusion. Attention 
has just now been drawn,* in connexion with this matter, to 
the brass of Alderman Felde in the church of Standon, in 
Hertfordshire, upon which is a mark bearing a very close re- 
semblance to the central portion of Caxton's device. The 
Alderman, who was, like Caxton, a mercer, died in 1477, and 
the identity in character of the two marks forbids the supposi- 
tion that there was anything distinctive in either. An exam- 
ination of a very large number of these marks shows the same 
forms constantly recurring, but differently combined, and it 
was the initials which specially identified the owner of a par- 
ticular mark. I see nothing of special significance in that 
part of Caxton's mark of which I have been speaking. 

Not very long ago, as I was walking down a room in the 
British Museum in which rare and choice books are exhibited 
in show-cases, one book specially caught my eye, and I said to 
myself, "I have certainly seen that before somewhere." On 
examination, I found it to be the fragment of the First Printed 
English New Testament, which is unique. I could not, there- 
fore, have seen the book elsewhere, but the seeming mystery 
was so'on made plain when I called to mind that I possess a 



* Athenaeum, No. 2680 (May 10, 1879;, p. 601. 
or * 



12 <*C5G+?AXC0n*RGPK0DU$CI0n$* 

copy of Mr. Arber's fac-simile reproduction of that deeply 
interesting relic. The fac-similist's art is one to which the 
lover of books is largely indebted. By its means, he can have 
at home, in his own library, absolute reproductions of volumes 
which are beyond all price, and of which, as in the instance 
just mentioned, a single copy only is known; reproductions 
which, for all practical purposes, stand in the stead of the un- 
attainable originals. The art has reached a perfection which 
leaves nothing to be desired, and which, viewed under certain 
aspects, may almost be pronounced to be dangerous. As I 
write, there is before me a printed fac-simile of a page of the 
"Spiegel onser Behoudenisse " preserved in the Public Library 
at Lille, which astonishes those most able to judge by its all 
but identity with the original. The fac-simile forms the front- 
ispiece to one of the volumes of the Catalogue* of that Library, 
the Preface to which is an able Essay of nearly three hundred 
pages on the Invention of Printing, and is by M, Paeile, the 
Librarian, who also published it as a separate work. Unfortu- 
nately, the original leaf is said to have been materially injured 
by the execution of the fac-simile, which gives me the oppor- 
tunity of saying that this mischief could not have happened 
if recourse had been had to any one of the photolithographic 
processes which are now so frequently and so advantageously 
adopted. The sale of the Perkins Library, in 1873, comprised 
a copy on vellum of what is generally known as the Mazarine, 
but which would be more correctly called the Gutenberg Bible, 
the copy being deficient, according to Dibdin, in two leaves, 
which were supplied in fac-simile. In view of the intended 
sale, a very careful examination was made, by an expert, we 
may assume, the result being that one leaf was discovered 
which appeared doubtful, but the second it was impossible to 
detect. This remarkable instance serves to show how difficult 
it is even for the professional eye to distinguish from the 
original work a leaf of well-executed fac-simile. Few, com- 
paratively, amongst book-lovers, can hope to possess a real 
Caxton. To say nothing of the heavy purse, which is one, and 
certainly not the least, requisite, the opportunities of acquisi- 



* Catalogue cle la Bibliotlioque de la Ville de Lille. Theologie. Lille 
1859: 8vo. 



*PKCLiminAflY+OB$GRYACIOn$* 



13 



tion are few and far between, and they are not likely to increase. 
The intelligent interest which the productions of the First 
English Printer now excite, leads to a keen competition on the 
part of public collections, from which a book, having once 
entered, is not likely to emerge. Mr. Francis Fry in one of 
his works of Biblical Bibliography gives an original leaf of 
each of the editions of the Bible which he describes. I know 
not whether the day will come when it will be possible for 
those interested in printing to purchase a leaf which had once 
been in the first press at Westminster. At present no signs of 
such a day appear, though it would be putting a very imperfect 
copy of any one of Caxton's books to no unworthy use to offer 
it, even in single leaves, to those who would reverently- cherish 
the smallest fragment of any production of the earliest print- 
ing-press set up in England. In the meanwhile, we must be 
content with what we have it in our power to obtain, that is to 
say, with reproductions such as have already been furnished, 
or may be issued hereafter. A list of what has hitherto ap- 
peared in this line, I now beg to offer, and in the remarks upon 
each work I have endeavoured to point out its peculiar features 
as they presented themselves to the person under whose auspi- 
ces the reprint was executed. Merely as rare books, quite 
independent of any connection with Caxton, or of the particu- 
lar style of reproduction, they commend themselves to the 
notice of the lover of books. In the List, as it may be proper 
to observe, "imitation" does not mean ordinary black-letter, 
but special Caxtonian type, with which the eye is gradually 
getting familiar. 





<sCf)G*(£axcon+KePHODu<£cion$^ 



/^^^ \)t CKame of tije Cfjesse, 5y William Caxton. The original by 
a^m * Caxton has no title-page or date. Folio. Imitation. 

^^y 7 Eeprint occupying 164 pages, not numbered; Remarks, 
pp. 1—8, signed Vincent Figgins, and dated May 1st, 
1855; a list of the works ascribed to Caxton, as printed by 
Mr. Knight in his Biography of Caxton, pp. 9—11 ; List of 
places where and persons by whom Printing was practiced 
at the time Caxton commenced it in England, pp. 12 — 13; 
Synopsis of Characters and Combinations used in " The 
Game of the Chesse," p. 15. 

For this, the first reproduction, whether imitation or in fac- 
simile, of any of Caxton's works, we are indebted to the late 
Mr. Vincent Figgins, the well-known type-founder of the City 
of London. Notwithstanding all that has since been written 
upon the press of Caxton, the Remarks of Mr. Figgins are still 
worthy of careful perusal. He suggests that the types of Cax- 
ton w r ere cut upon very soft metal, probably upon pewter, and 
observes that the First Printer's early works show evidences 
of the frequent renew r al of the types. There are errors suffi- 
cient throughout the original work, here reproduced, to make 
it doubtful whether revise proofs were pulled in those days. 
The original which Mr. Figgins followed is in the King's 
Library at the British Museum. The fact that it is printed 
from cut metal types, and is a mixture of black-letter and the 
character called secretary, with all the shades of modification 
and approximation to each other of which the two styles are 



^CBG+^AXcon+RepflODWions** 15 

capable, made the work of reproducing by means of cast types 
from a single cut punch somewhat difficult. The paper upon 
which the reproduction is printed was made expressly for its 
publication, with the reed- and water-marks imitated from the 
original. Mr. Figgins's motive in producing the book was 
partly to enable his contemporaries better to appreciate the 
industry of Caxton, but more specially to assist in raising 
funds for the completion and endowment of the Printers' 
Aims-Houses at Wood Green, Tottenham. The book, unfortu- 
nately, was not a success ; the copies of it after a time came 
into the hands of Mr. John Eussell Smith, of Soho Square, who 
issued it with a title-page bearing his name as publisher, and 
the date 1860. 

&& g&ouentc-iDte of Jfytltyt: with Stye if&eUecgne of ge Stomacfce* Re- 
printed from Caxton" s edition {circa m.cccc.xci). With Introduc- 
tory Remarks and Notes by William Blades. Imprinted by Blades, 
Bast, & Blades, Ab church Lane, London, 1858. Quarto. One 
page facsimile. Imitation. 

Frontispiece, which is a fac-simiie, by Mr. G. I. F. Tupper, of 
the first page of the original work, and, for a printed fac- 
simile, says Mr. Blades, it has probably never been excelled; 
Title, Contents, and Preface, pp. i— viij, the Preface being 
dated August, 1858; Remarks, pp. 1—25; The Gouernayle of 
Helthe, and Medicina Stomachi, as printed by William Cax- 
ton, 36 pages, not numbered; an Annotated Reprint of the 
foregoing tract, in modern type; Glossary, occupying pp. 
J 05— 110. 

An effort has been made, by the use of types very similar to those em- 
ployed by Caxton. to give this reprint something of the appearance of the 
original. To effect this still further, the types were expressly cast in pewter, 
which, from its softness, yields an impression resembling more the produc- 
tions of the early printers, than could be obtained from a harder material. 
Great care has been taken to make the text an accurate reproduction of 
the original. Not only has the orthography been strictly adhered to, but it 
is printed page for page, line for line, and word for word, with all the peculi- 
arities and variations of contracted and double letters. . . . Only fifty-five 
copies have been printed, which will be the limit of the issue.— Preface. 

Sirs 3&orient!i. Printed by William Caxton. (1491 ?) Quarto. IMI- 
TATION. 
Twenty pages, of which the Reprint occupies 16. 



10 <*C5c+<£Axcon*RGPKODi]<z;cion$* 

This small Tract from the Press of William Caxton is reprinted from the 
unique copy lately discovered in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It appears 
to he a translation from the Latin, probably by Caxton himself, but no other 
copy in any language, in print or manuscript, appears to be known The 
Impression is limited to fifty copies on Paper and four on Vellum. 

Jan., 1859. W.rii/LTAM] B. [lades] 

The discovery was made in the autumn of 1858. A gentle- 
man, not connected with the Library, knowing how little trust 
can be placed in the catalogues of fifty years ago, spent some 
time at the Bodleian in examining the old shelves, and in the 
Turner Collection found this Ars Moriendi bound up with sev- 
eral other black-letter works making a thick volume lettered 
"Tracts," of which the first only appeared in the catalogue. 
Mine is a presentation copy from Mr. Blades. This work is 
quite different from "8TJ)e Mvtz antr €:rafte to itnoto taell to ©tjc," 
printed by Caxton about the same date. 

Cfjaucer's Canterbury Scales, Folio. First Edition. Certain leaves 
only. Imitation. 

A few copies, not more than half-a-dozen, I believe, were 
printed of some leaves which were required to complete an 
imperfect copy of this edition of Chaucer's great work. By 
the kindness of Mr. Blades I possess the following leaves : 1, 
2, 163, 179, 186, 252, 357, 362, 363, 364, 366, 368, and 369. The 
typographical execution and the paper are alike admirable, 
and hold their own even when placed by the side of an absolute 
fac-simile. A set of the leaves was priced six guineas in the 
catalogue of a London bookseller. 

i&orale 3JrouerI>es, Composed in French by Cristyne de Pisan. 
translated by the Earl Rivers, and reprinted from the original 
edition of William Caxton, A. B. 1478, with Introductory Remarks, 
by William Blades. London, 1859. Folio. Imitation. 

Title, etc., and Remarks, pp.' 10, not numbered, the Remarks 
dated September, 1859; the Morale Prouerbes of Cristyne, 
printed in imitation of the original, 8 pp., not numbered; 
Les Prouerbes Moraulx, as composed by Cristyne de Pisan, 
together with The Morale Prouerbes, as translated by An- 
thoirie, Earl Rivers, the former from the Harleian Manuscript 
Xo. 4431, and the latter from the Printed Edition by William 
Caxton, 20 pages in modern type. 



^t5e+?Axcon*RePKODu<£uon$^ 17 

There is no need of apology in introducing the following Keprint to the 
notice of the reader. Whether as one of the first products of the printing- 
press of our first typographer, William Caxton,— or as an interesting speci- 
men of mediaeval poetry,— or merely as a reprint of a tract so scarce that no 
Public Library in Europe possesses a copy— an interest attaches to it which 
the editor hopes will make it welcome to every book-lover. "The Moral 
Proverbs of Christine " were printed in 1478. On the last page, the printer, 
not liking to tack on a prose tail-piece to a metrical poem, has given us the 
colophon in rhyme. We may consider the last stanza, if not the preceding 
one also, as Caxton's own composition, and there we find the date, viz., the 
14th day of February, in the 17th year of King Edward IV.— Remarks. 

It need scarcely be said that in the matter of typographical 
execution no pains were spared to make the reprint a close 
imitation of the original. The paper gives an excellent idea 
of what we might expect to find in a book which had escaped 
the changes and chances of four hundred years. I assign to 
Morale Prouerbes the first place amongst copies which are not 
fac-simile reproductions. Printed for Presentation only, the 
impression being limited to ninety-five copies. My copy was 
the gift of Mr. Blades. 

2Efie Statutes of 3^enrg UX3L In Exact Fac- Simile, from the very 
rare Original printed by Caxton in 1489. Edited, with Notes and 
Introduction, by John Bae, Member of the Boyal Institution. 
London, John Camden Rotten, 74 and 75 Piccadilly, 1869. Small 
Folio. Fac-Simile. 

Title; Introduction, pp. i— xxi, dated June, 1869; Fac-Simile 

Statutes, occupying 80 pages, not numbered; Annotations 

and Index, pp. 1—32. 

The early Statutes of Henry VII. may be said to mark an era in English 
History, since they are the first laws made in the ordinary language of that 
period. The reprint, which it is proposed to publish, is a most remarkable 
fac-simile in Lithography by hand, and is printed on paper made in Holland 
expressly for the purpose, which paper thoroughly represents that upon 
which the original was printed The following are some of the Stat- 
utes : Price of Hats and Caps ; French Wines ; Act for Peopling Isle of Wight ; 
Against Butchers ; Eebels in the Field ; Correcting Priests ; Fires in London ; 
Concerning Customs; Marrying a Woman against her Will,— Prospectus. 

Notwithstanding what Mr. Kae states to the contrary (pp. ii 
and iii of his Introduction), there is, as Mr. I'lades had said, a 
perfect copy of the original in the National Library at Paris. 
The following circular letter accompanied the Prospectus : 

9, Mincing Lane, j 

Sir :— London, E. C, February 19th, 1869. ) 

I venture to forward you the Prospectus of a volume lam about to publish, 
in the hope that you may not deem it an unworthy addition to your Library. 



18 ^CBG+^AXCOn+RGPflODUGCIOnS*- 

Should I succeed in inducing you to become acquainted with a work 
which apart from its unique character displays the perfection to which 
typography had attained in Caxton's time, my object in recalling the skill 
and perseverance of one to whom posterity is so largely indebted for the 
means of diffusing knowledge will be fully accomplished. 

Permit me to add that after payment of the expenses incurred, whatever 
surplus may remain will be equally divided between the Koyal Hospital for 
Incurables and the North London Consumptive Hospital, — Institutions 
which have especial claims upon Christian philanthropy. J. Rae. 

The number printed is not stated ; the price to subscribers 
was £1.11.6 per copy. 

STfje ffifUm ®% antr otfter Stagers. Printed by commandment of 
the Princess Elizabeth, Queen of England and of France, and 
also of the Princess Margaret, Mother of our Sovereign Lord the 
King. By their most humble subject and servant, William Caxton. 
(circa m.ccccxc.) Reproduced in Photo- Lithography by Stephen 
Ayling. Griffith and Farran, corner of St. PauVs Church-yard, 
MDOCCLXix. Quarto. Fac-Simile. 

Title; Dedication to Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Bart; three 
introductory pages in ordinary black letter; the fac-simile, 
occupying 43 pages, not numbered. 

"The original is one of the most beautiful and unique speci- 
'mens of early English typography that is anywhere to be 
'found. It differs in style from every other production of 
'Caxton's press, in that each page is surrounded by an orna- 
1 mental border." The book takes its name from prayers which 
it contains commencing with the ejaculation O. Mr. Ayling 
considers it is more than probable that this is the first book of 
prayers in English issued by the followers of Wiclif. The 
reproduction is bound in vellum, with red edges, and has upon 
each cover a fac-simile of Caxton's device. It affords a very 
fair idea of the works given to the world by our First Printer. 
It was published, I believe, at ten shillings and sixpence. My 
copy was a present from the publishers. 

SCfte Utctss attfj Sajutfls of the $!)ilosopf)ers. A Fac-Simile Repro- 
duction of the First Book printed in England, by William Caxton, 
in 1477. London, Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row, 1877. Quarto. 
Fac-Simile. 

Titles and Preface, pp i— xii, the latter by Mr. Blades, dated 
May, 1877. 



In connection with the Celebration of the Four Hundredth Anniversary 
of the Introduction of Printing into England, it is proposed to issue a memo- 
rial volume, commemorating the event, and at the same time presenting to 
modern readers, an exact facsimile, of The First Book Printed in Eng- 
land by Caxton. This most interesting first English printed book is now 
generally admitted to he The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, printed 
in the Almonry at Westminster in the year 1477. The original copies, from 
which the reproduction has been, by permission, made, are those preserved 
in the Library of the British Museum, and in the choice collection of Samuel 
Christie -Miller, Esq., at Britwell House, Bucks, the latter being the finest 

copy known The Britwell copy is a small folio volume in perfect 

preservation, very beautifully printed on thick ash-grey paper, with red 
initial letters ; it is one of the most beautiful examples of Caxton's press, 
and is remarkable for its evenness of colour, clearness, and careful printing. 
A very fine and perfect copy of this precious volume may be valued at one 
thousand pounds. In order to render the reproduction an exact fac-simile 
of the ediUo princeps, a paper has been specially manufactured for the work, 
having all the peculiarities of the original ; the printing is executed by a 
photographic process which reproduces infallibly all the characteristics of 
the original work ; and the binding is a careful reproduction of that of 

Caxton's day This memorial volume is rendered more interesting 

and, to the connoisseur, more valuable by an Introduction by William 
Blades, Esq., the author of the "Life and Typography of William Caxton," 
giving a short historical account of the book, the circumstances which led 
to its publication, and its position among the works printed by Caxton. It 
is believed that the publication of this work will, apart from its value to 
collectors, be generally acceptable as representing the first work issued 
from the press in England, and as illustrating the state of the art of printing 
in its infancy.— Prospectus. 

Visitors to the Caxton Exhibition will not soon forget the 
Britwell House copy which was placed alone, by itself, in a 
glass case, upon a velvet cushion, and open at the page of the 
Epilogue where Caxton gives the place and the year of his 
printing it : 25nnvjmteti ug we brilliant barton at toestmestre the i>ere 
of our loro, $IX . <£C®® . SLr^bij. Earl Spencer has a copy of this 
first edition of the Dictes which has the unique distinction of 
a colophon in which the date is more precisely given, thus :— 
giSJhfche to as fjntsshetr the, jrbuj* Dag of the moneth of Nouemure. & the 
seuententh jere of the rejjne of IkvriQ Hutoarfi the. fourth. 

The reprint of the Dictes consisted of a subscription edition 
of two hundred and fifty copies at one guinea each to those 
who sent in their names by June 1st, 1877, and one guinea and 
a half after that date. 

jFac^Stmiles tllustratmp, the Hauouvs of OTtlltam Carton at 08?est= 
minster, anti the Jtntrotmctton of printing into HnglauU. With a 
Memoir of our First Printer, and Bibliographical Particulars 



20 *C5G+?AXC0n*RGPfl0DU<£CI0n$* 

of the Illustrations. By Francis Compton Price. London, Pri- 
vately Printed, 1877. The Four Hundredth Anniversary. Quarto. 
Fac-Simile. 

This work scarcely comes within the limits that I had pro- 
posed to myself, as indicated by the title of this tractate, but I 
trust my readers will not complain if they find something 
beyond what they might have been led to expect. 

Title and Memoir, 8 pages, not numbered ; and the following 
fac-similes executed by the author, who is the fac-similist of 
the British Museum, with descriptions of each : 

1. Indulgence granted by John Kendale, as Legate from Pope 
Sixtus IV., to those contributing to the defence of Rhodes 
against the Turks, dated 1480, with large four-line wood cut 
initial, the earliest instance of printed initials in England. 
A blank is left in the printed form for the name of the per- 
son in whose favour the Indulgence was granted. In this 
instance, the blank is filled up with the names of Symon 
Mountfort and Emma his wife. 

2. Caxton's Handbill Advertisement, being the first broadside 
printed in England. Two copies are known, one in the 
British Museum, from which this fac-simile is taken, and the 
other in the collection of Earl Spencer. 

3. The Epilogue to the "Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers." 
The translation which Caxton printed had been made by 
Anthony, Earl Rivers. The Earl having omitted to translate 
certain conclusions of Socrates "towchyng v/omen," Caxton 
supplies the omission in the Epilogue here reproduced, which 
is thus an example of his own style of literary composition. 

4. The Wood-cut of the Crucifixion, prefixed to the ' ' Fifteen 
O's," but omitting the border, which Mr. Price regards as 
detracting greatly from the artistic merit of the representa- 
tion. This is believed to be the most considerable wood-cut 
printed in England before the year 1500. 

5. With these fac-similes is included a lithographic copy, from 
Strutt's "Royal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities,'' of the draw- 
ing contained in the MS. of the " Dictes" which is preserved 
in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. Added are rea- 
sons for holding the "figure in black" to be an authentic 
portrait of Caxton. 



The impression was strictly limited to one hundred and 
twenty-five copies, numbered and signed, and was issued to 
subscribers in the month of September, 1877. The subscription 
was ten shillings and sixpence per copy. 

The Holbein Society's Fac Simile Reprints. 2Tf)e (SKolfcen JUflentr. 
A Reproduction from a copy in the Manchester Free Library. 
With an Introduction by Alfred Aspland, Editor. Printed for 
the Holbein Society by Wyman & Sons, 74 and 75, Great Queen 
Street, London, M.DCGO.LXXVIII. Folio. Fac-Simile. 

Titles, etc., and Tables of Contents, Notices of William Caxton, 
pp. 7—41 ; Appendix, with traces of Water-Marks in paper, 
pp. 43—45; The Golden Legend, with fac-simile of large 
Wood-cut of Saints, pp. 47—51 ; Fac-Simile Plates, 68 pages; 
Epilogue, in modern type, 1 p. 

This reproduction is one of the series issued to its subscribers 
by the Holbein Society established at Manchester for publish- 
ing fac-simile reprints of rare books in which Art and Litera- 
ture are united. The portions reproduced are kt 2H)e natgugte of 
SagntSoJjan 3Saj)tiste," The Lives of Saints Paul, Peter, John, 
Matthew, and Luke, and " SEfje natgugte of our SSlesstU 3La&2," the 
exact size of the original, and printed on paper in imitation 
of that used by Caxton. "This book, of which no perfect 
'copy is known, has been unanimously allowed to be the finest 
'ever published by Caxton, both for size (being large folio), 
'and also for its illustrations." So state the Council of the 
Society in announcing to the members the intention to issue 
this reproduction. The original followed is in the Manchester 
Free Library, and was purchased in 1864 for £5 . 10 . 0, not being 
recognized as a Caxton until some little time after its acquisi- 
tion. It is very imperfect, beginning with folio cxxxviij, and 
belongs to the first of the three editions of the Golden Legend 
which Caxton printed. The Holbein Society's volume contains 
a biographical notice of Caxton, in which are embodied some 
particulars of the Celebration of 1877, and also a list of the 
printers and presses in Europe during his life-time. Upon one 
point which is always of interest in connexion with our First 
Printer, I find the following observations, which I quote with- 
out expressing any opinion respecting them : 



22 «*Ci)G+<£sxcon+FcpKOMiGcion$* 

Caxton never printed the Bible, a matter which he must have deeply 
pondered over ; hut as he was an eminently prudent man, he shrank from 

quarrels with the Court and the Church The Council of Constance 

in 1415 had condemned forty-five articles maintained by Wickliffe, rightly 
called the " Morning Star of the Eeformation," as heretical, false, and erro- 
neous ; his bones were ordered to be dug up and cast on a dunghill, burnt, 
and cast on the waters His Bible was condemned, and the produc- 
tion of it would have exposed the printer to heavy punishment. Caxton 
could not tell, in reverting to earlier manuscripts, how far he was treading 
on forbidden ground ; nor, till the Court of England was in open defiance of 
the Pope, could this be done in safety— and so he printed no Bible. 

We have also the editor's account of the Golden Legend, a 
work which in the Caxton Celebration was included in the list 
of Bibles, and which contains a translation into English of 
nearly the whole of the Pentateuch, and of a great part of the 
Gospels. The volume contains engravings of the water-marks 
which are found on the paper upon which the original is 
printed, and in this useful particular stands alone amongst the 
Caxtonian reproductions that have yet appeared. This detail, 
of course, did not escape Mr. Blades, and the happiest represen- 
tation of water-marks I have met with is the ''transparency" 
which forms plate ix. in the second volume of his "Life and 
Typography of William Caxton." To the reproduction now 
under notice, is added a Supplement of a series of full pages 
and illustrations from the Antwerp edition of the Golden 
Legend printed in 1505. On the cover is a fac-simile of Cax- 
ton's device, which might have been figured with advantage on 
one of the pages of the volume. 

STfte burial. " STratislateU thus in fEnnbsslje i)» fcoglltam barton," 

Mr. G. I. F. Tupper has in the press a fac-simile of the King's 
copy in the British Museum, the only perfect copy known, and 
by his courtesy I am enabled to give the following details: 
The fac-simile will be printed on paper as nearly as may be 
resembling the original, and will be of exactly the same size. 
It will not be preceded by any title or announcement of any 
sort, but will stand at the beginning of the book as in the 
original. It will be followed by a description of the original, 
giving typographical particulars, which will call for some re- 
marks on Caxton's typography generally, and on his transla- 
tion of The Curial, and there will be some account of Alain 
Chartier, with a list of his works. Xext, and lastly, will come 



*K^G+(£AXCCn+RePHODU<£CIOn$-*" 23 

a reprint of the fac-simile with marginal and interleaved notes 
and references, furnishing, where necessary, the various read- 
ings of the printed editions, and of the Latin manuscripts in 
the British Museum. A small number of copies only will be 
printed. The fac-similes which illustrate and adorn Mr. Wm. 
Blades's two noble quartos— fac-similes which may be quoted 
as most perfect models— bear their own testimony to the skill 
of Mr. Tupper, whose effort always is to get microscopic exact- 
ness. The pains taken to this end are rarely appreciated and 
by few persons, for few ever take the trouble to com pare a fac- 
simile with the original. On one interesting point I must quote 
Mr. Tupper's own words in a communication with which he 
has favoured me : 

I think I ought to add an " apology " for offering a hand-made fac-simile 
in these days of photo-lithography, not merely because the work was more 
than half done before photo-lithography was well developed, but because I 
should like to call attention to the fact, not recognized, that besides the 
doubtfulness of a photo-lithograph by reason of the imperfections in the 
lithographic part of the process, and the blots, etc., caused by the photo- 
graphic rendering of yellow stains in the paper having to be corrected (?) 
by the workman toot artist) without even the original by him. Besides 
this, the photograph is not a facsimile at all, but a pictorial representation, 
i e., a view from a single point, and hence a point by point examination of 
it is a solecism. This is more than a distinction without a difference, as I 
am sure you will easily see. So, that although these photo-lithographs for 
some purposes are useful, they should not be allowed by their specious 
appearance (the general processes by which they are produced giving them 
what may be called a natural aspect) and by the supposed impossibility of 
error in anything produced by photography, to usurp a position to which 
they have no title. 

Writing me further upon this subject, under date of June 2d, 
1879, Mr. Tupper continues : 

As you express some interest in the remarks on fac-similes, I think I 
must, if you will pardon the egotism, mention yet another point, which 
would come with better grace from some one else, inasmuch as I must 
needs for the sake of showing its value, refer to my own experience, for 
want of knowing what others have done in the same way. I mean the 
minute examination to a degree most unlikely otherwise to be made, that 
the hand-made fac-simile necessitates, the results of which may be not 
unimportant. Thus, had Blades's fac-similes been done in photo-lithogra- 
phy, it is very likely that the method which Caxton, in connexion with 
Colard Mansion, adopted of printing the red and black at one impression, 
would never have been discovered. The same may be said of the division 
of the No. 2 type into 2 and 2*, and the resultant discovery of the mode 
adopted of producing the second edition, so to speak, of the type. And so, 
it has seemed to me, that a judicious analysis on this system of the early 
printed works (types and engravings), would furnish a history of these arts 



24 *C5G*<£AXC.0n+RGPR0DUGCI0n$* 

of the most minute and interesting kind, and I have deeply regretted that 
■business needs have prevented me from following out this work. So again, 
the fac-simile examination exposed the true reading of the cancelled Order 
in Council awarding Milton two hundred pounds, about which there had 
been so much controversy ; and I might mention several other matters. 
These trifles I have unfortunately had to mention are, indeed, the veriest 
trifles in themselves, hut is not every missing or ill-forged link in history 
worth supplying or re-making ? and so, I do not know that we have much 
to rejoice at over photo-lithography more than over the other '• royal roads" 
with which this facile age abounds. 

Besides the Museum copy, one other only is known of Cax- 
ton's edition of the Curial ; this, which is in the collection of 
the Earl Spencer, is much cropped, and is deficient in the first 
leaf, which, however, is supplied in beautiful fac-simile. 




$rtnte& fcg Jtotm Springer, at ttje Batlj $ress $rtnttnp, <&fftce, 
Uuftuque Street, Koto a ©ftj, Koto a. 



IN PRESS. WILL BE ISSUED DURING THE YEAR 1880. 

Laige broad octavo, about 150 pages. With a few matter-of-fact cuts. 

The impression will consist of 85 copies on fine tinted paper, with carmine 

initials, at about $3.50; and 85 copies on fine white book paper with plain 

initials, at about $2 00. The work has been in press a year, and 112 

pages are printed. Subscribers' names will be thankfully received. 

AN EXPANDED CATALOGUE 

OF A F.iW 

Books and Pamphlets and Scattered Magazines, 



IN VARIED LANGUAGES. AND STAGES OF ENGLISH, 

TREATING 



I 



iwiMjanifpjoipiii! 

Its Appendages and Dependencies ; 

THE PROPERTY OF 

JOHN SPRINGER, Printer, 



Of Iowa City, lozva 



(Who, though poor in purse, and deficient in literary and artistic taste, is rich in hope, 

and abounds in egotism) ; 



Pertinent and Impertinent Notes, 

Original, Stolen, and Selected from the Works of Intelligent Writf.ks 

and 

Apposite and Opposite Appendices. 

SECOND, AND REVISED, IMPRESSION. 



New York: 
.JONATHAN s. GREEN, 5 MURRAY STREET. 

Iowa City, Iowa: 
JOHN SPRINGER. 



MDCCCLXXX. 



A few Specimens ready about January ist, 1880, and mailed on application. 











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